A woman stops at a vending machine on a hot day. By pushing a few buttons on her wireless phone, a can of refreshing soda is dispensed by the machine. Elsewhere, a man uses his wireless phone to pay for groceries, pay utility bills and shop for clothes. He receives one consolidated bill for all these items at the end of the month.

Some distant future technology fantasy? Not so. Situations like those mentioned above already occur in other parts of the world, thanks to advanced wireless technology. However, there are barriers to such technology being accepted widely in the United States. Those barriers and the future of the wireless industry are addressed in a new book written by Douglas Lamont, visiting professor of marketing at DePaul University.

“Conquering the Wireless World: The Age of M-Commerce,” published by John Wiley and Sons in the U.S. and by Capstone in the United Kingdom, is an in-depth look at the wireless industry and its potential for the future. The book incorporates many of the marketing principles discussed in Lamont’s class in DePaul’s highly-ranked, part-time MBA program, including value proposition, diffusion, targeting, promotion, segmentation and pricing strategies.

By focusing on the wireless developments of the three major global players in the marketplace, Japan’s DoCoMo, Great Britain’s Vodafone and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, Lamont said his book serves as a “road map” for navigating the complex wireless industry and marketing new wireless products.

“American firms have to get ahead of the curve in this area,” Lamont said. “The world is going to change technologically. Land-line phones will eventually disappear. A universal wireless number will allow people to carry one wireless device and have access to all kinds of information. Younger Americans are already embracing wireless technologies and in 10 to 15 years, when they are managers and making decisions, it is likely that they will decide to pull out all the wires and move to a wireless society.”

Lamont said the need for the U.S. to embrace wireless technologies becomes even more apparent when comparing numbers and coverage percentages with Europe and Asia, where these technologies have been widely accepted.

“The U.S. is way behind other parts of the world,” said Lamont. “For example, Northern Europe has 80 to 90 percent wireless coverage. In the U.S., it’s around 40 percent, and half the phones here are analog or the digital phones of a lower generation. There’s no universal protocol here. It’s a quilt of useless connections, none of which are uniform.”

Lamont cited several other reasons why the wireless technology that is sweeping other countries has failed to catch on with American consumers.

“In the U.S., we are really creatures of the past, and we stick by our old technology, so we have a phone at home, a phone in our office, a phone in our car, and so on,” Lamont noted. “There’s also a generational issue to be dealt with, as most people over the age of 40 do not use their cell phones for anything unrelated to their job. They like their land-line phones the rest of the time. In addition, the advertising and promotion of these wireless products in the U.S. has confused the buying public, because they all have been marketed so differently.”

The concept of “microbilling” is also examined in the book. Microbilling is a process where a consumer is able to purchase many different types of goods and services via their wireless device, and then receive one, streamlined bill per month for all of their purchases. This simplified method is popular in Asia and parts of Europe, but has yet to make its way to the U.S., despite the huge, untapped market here.

“None of the U.S. companies in this industry has paid attention to consumer needs for this type of service,” said Lamont. “As a result, other players from overseas are doing a better job in this space.”

The book’s initial printing will be for 50,000 copies. Plans are currently underway to translate the book into Korean and Mandarin Chinese. This is Lamont’s seventh book, and his previous books have sold over 500,000 copies worldwide. He is also the author of “Salmon Day: The End of the Beginning for Global Business,” published by Capstone Publishing in 1997.

(NOTE: Reporters interested in interviewing Lamont should call Shawn Malayter at 312-362-6978).